The nomination period closed.
As of today, the nomination period for the Municipal election in British Columbia has been closed. Our municipalities will be voting for the new members of city councils, directors of Columbia Shuswap Regional District {CSRD}, new school trustees, and new mayors in our beautiful province. The candidates are already signed in, but some names will be maybe missing because the deadline for the challenge of nominations { due to the qualification under section 81 of the Local government Act} is Wednesday, September 13, and the deadline to withdraw is Friday, September 16. The advance voting is on October 5 and 11, and the general voting day is October 15.
Photo source: Ed White
What candidates offer the Salmon Arm? On the list, there are the names of candidates currently on the service and the new ones. We have three candidates for the mayor position, and thirteen candidates for the council members. Some names are generally known better, some less. The most important is what electors want, if they want to keep the old structure and current way of running the city, or they prefer the change, new blood, new ideas, and faces in a difficult time.
We just must remember that those candidates in service got a chance for the previous four years and more. Some decisions were better, some not, but who works, makes mistakes, whatever profession he/she is in. It’s just one thing, that can not be forgiven, and that is the decision made on November 15, 2021, when the current city council voluntarily brought in an unanimous vote a mandatory vaccination policy against Covid 19 for the employees and elected officials, and on December 31, 2021, for the contractors as well. Incumbent candidates by this decision divided the community, and due to this unprofessional act, some highly skilled local people lost their jobs and their families secure income. This unprecedented discrimination step has no place in Canada in 21. Century, and will be on the shoulders of serving councillors forever.
The mayor, Alan Harrison ignored the public request for open discussion with the presented about the vaccine mandate during the council meeting on November 15, 2021. On January 19, 2022, with the Chief executive officer CEO Erin Jackson refused a delegation request, about the same topic. Should the mayor disregard the public and open dialog? Allan Harrison is also a supporter of Smart cities, the risks we already described in the article below.
What about the inclusivity statement, that mayor and council supported all gender identity, sexual/affectional orientation, the black lives mother movement, and so on? They were talking about stopping discrimination and hatred in our community, but with the mandate, they did the exact opposite.
For the positions of the directors of CSRD there was not a big interest as for the city council, but the same thing happened, November 18th, 2021, the board of Columbia Shuswap Regional District, CSRD, voted unanimously to implement a mandatory vaccination policy for all elected officials, CSRD employees, paid-on-call volunteer firefighters, contractors working indoor spaces, and emergency management volunteers. The policy went to effect on January 3rd, 2022. Due to this decision, CSRD lost 47 paid on-call firefighters.
The big discrimination policy went into effect despite the CSRD board {same directors} brought unanimously Anti Racial Discrimination and Anti-racism policy.
Now, everything is in the hands of pollees, and time will show the results. Very important is that the more citizens take their rights and attend the election, the better picture of the will of the residents we can see. We should not vote for the names, we should vote for people by their work, beliefs, and character. However the election ended, we still need to work together and build a brighter future for all of us and for the next generations.
– DB
